As Cuba and Russia celebrate their “excellent relations” with a visit by Russian naval vessels that will be in Havana port in the coming days, a US submarine also arrived at Guantánamo Bay on Thursday.
The USS Helena was sent to Guantánamo Bay as part of a previously planned maneuver, the responsible regional command (Southcom) announced on Thursday. This therefore concerns a “routine visit”.
When the Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov arrived on Wednesday, 21 salvos were fired, local media reported. A nuclear submarine was also spotted offshore. According to the Cuban government, the reason for the visit from June 12 to 17 is the historic friendship between the two countries. However, American media wrote that Russia was planning military exercises in the Caribbean. A Russian oil tanker and a salvage tug were also expected in Havana. According to official information, none of the ships would have nuclear weapons on board.
US: No threat situation
Havana is only about 170 kilometers from Key West in the US state of Florida. According to the US government, Russian Navy operations have been observed off the coast of Cuba in the past. We are closely monitoring developments, but do not assume that there is a threat. It is likely that Russia will repeat something like this in the future. According to the American newspaper “Miami Herald”, the US Navy also used three destroyers, a coast guard ship and a maritime surveillance aircraft to observe the Russian ships.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodríguez in Moscow on Wednesday. “We agree on the excellent state of relations between Cuba and Russia and the achieved strengthening of economic and trade relations, with the implementation of projects in various sectors,” Rodríguez wrote on the online platform X.
Source: Krone
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